Aldershot Primary Schools, Secondary Schools & PreSchools in the Aldershot area

Friendly community centre where various clubs and societies meet

My daughter has been a part of this school since 2010 and thoroughly enjoys all of her classes. The standard of teaching is exceptional and she continually achieves high marks for her syllabus exams. She is also encouraged to push herself with new genres of dance. Everyone is very supportive at festivals and because the friends she has made share her passion, they will be life-long friends I hope. I couldn't imagine a better or more inclusive dance school to be a part of. Thank you Mrs Renton!

My daughter joined Renton nearly 3 years ago (aged 10) having had a succession of dance schools in the previous couple of years due to the closure of the school she had danced at since 2.5years. Whilst my daughter is not a natural performer or the most talented she loves her dancing and all the teachers have been wonderfully supportive and encouraging of her, not only teaching her technically to dance but boosting her confidence and allowing her to shine at her own level. I cannot thank them enough for fostering her love of dance, I only wish we had come to the school earlier

Enjoy it here, seems to get used for a whole host of different dancing with various teachers. But alway clean and comfortable. Nice balcony waiting area too

My wife and I have been around dancing for a long time and so we have seen a fair few dance schools and Diamond Dance Centre is excellent and feel very fortunate to have them on our doorstep, if not it would be worth travelling to. Both my wife and I and one of our children dance at the school and I'm pretty sure my little boy will start when he's old enough too. So what makes it such a good school? it's a long list to be honest. I think the first thing is that you can do as much or as little as you like, you can do a more relaxed fun type class or a more technically orientated class aimed at preparing dancers for competitions. This is important, there are two distinct flavours here, the fun classes are a lot of fun and the competition orientated classes while also fun are a lot more challenging and the teachers expect a lot more from their dancers. The second thing is the quality of the teaching, it is very, very high. My wife and I used to travel from Wales to London to work with the best coaches when we competed and I can honestly say the Diamond team are just as good. They know their stuff with a lot of technique and their fault finding and correction is very impressive. I'm particuarly impressed with the way they teach youngsters, in the competition class they do expect a lot from them, but they deliver in truckloads. The teaching method uses explanation, demonstration, imitation and practice. The teacher who leads the Saturday competition works them very hard and expects a lot but makes it a lot of fun at the same time, you can tell she loves her job and likes working with the kids and she is very, very good at it. The third thing is the 'helpers'. These are the 'older younger' dancers (if that makes sense) who have come up through the system and in their teens. They just make the school to be honest and are brilliant role models for my kids. All the little ones look up to them and they are nothing but supportive, fun and caring. They help set the tone of the dance school and make it the encouraging, positive place that it is. I love the fact that my little girl looks up to these amazing helpers as role models rather than some singer from the telly. To me having my little girl have such amazing role models is just as important as the actual dancing as that's exactly what I want her to be like as she grows up. I can't really put into words how brilliant I think they are. Hard working, dedicated, focussed and yet fun, supportive of others and encouraging at the same time, I have so much admiration for them. The fourth thing is the 'Diamond Dance Family' and culture of the place. It's not just a dance school for the kids, it's a social framework for the parents too. A lot of parents stay and watch their kids and it's very social and again supportive evironment with lots of advice and support. Currently the school run a free dance class every two weeks for the kids parents which is good fun. You would think with everybody competing against each other there would be the potential for rivalry but it just doesnt happen, everybody wants to be the best but by doing the best they can do and not by hamstringing the competition. The kids compete as a team and that's exactly how it feels, both for the kids and the parents of. It is a littel daunting moving into the competition side of the school at first as a non-dancing parent, but the support framework is brilliant, there is always somebody willing to offer advice or loan you safety pins etc if you've forgotten. In summary if you are looking for a dance school this is the one and as a parent of a younger dancer you also get a little social thing too. My daughter has been going for 4 years now since she was 3 and watching her face beaming on the dance floor and seeing her improve month on month tell me this is the right dance school for her.